# Network metrics > Configuring OBI to observe point-to-point network metrics. --- LLMS index: [llms.txt](/llms.txt) --- OpenTelemetry eBPF Instrumentation can be configured to provide network metrics between different endpoints. For example, between physical nodes, containers, Kubernetes pods, services, etc. ## Get started To get started using OBI networking metrics, consult the [quickstart setup documentation](quickstart/), and for advanced configuration, consult the [configuration documentation](config/). ## Network metrics OBI provides two families of network metrics: **Flow metrics**: capture the bytes sent and received between different endpoints, from the application point of view. - `obi.network.flow.bytes`, if it is exported via OpenTelemetry. - `obi_network_flow_bytes_total`, if it is exported by a Prometheus endpoint. - To enable it, add the `network` option to the [OTEL_EBPF_METRICS_FEATURES](../configure/export-data/) configuration option. **Inter-zone metrics**: capture the bytes sent and received between different availability zones, from the application point of view. - `obi.network.inter.zone.bytes`, if it is exported via OpenTelemetry. - `obi_network_inter_zone_bytes_total`, if it is exported by a Prometheus endpoint. - To enable it, add the `network` option to the [OTEL_EBPF_METRICS_FEATURES](../configure/export-data/) configuration option. > [!NOTE] > > The metrics are captured from the host perspective, so they include the > overhead of the network stack (protocol headers, etc.). ## Metric attributes Network metrics are labeled with the following attributes: | Attribute | Description | | ------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | `obi.ip` / `obi_ip` | Local IP address of the OBI instance that emitted the metric | | `direction` | `ingress` for incoming traffic, `egress` for outgoing traffic | | `iface` | Network interface name | | `src.address` | Source IP address (local for egress, remote for ingress) | | `src.port` | Source port (local for egress, remote for ingress) | | `src.name` | Source service name (resolved from service discovery) | | `service.name` | Local service name associated with the instrumented endpoint | | `service.namespace` | Local service namespace associated with the instrumented endpoint | | `src.cidr` | Source CIDR (if configured) | | `dst.address` | Destination IP address (remote for egress, local for ingress) | | `dst.port` | Destination port (remote for egress, local for ingress) | | `dst.name` | Destination service name (resolved from service discovery) | | `service.peer.name` | Remote peer service name associated with the destination endpoint | | `service.peer.namespace` | Remote peer service namespace associated with the destination endpoint | | `dst.cidr` | Destination CIDR (if configured) | | `transport` | Transport protocol: `tcp`, `udp` | | `k8s.src.namespace` / `k8s_src_namespace` | Source namespace name | | `k8s.src.name` / `k8s_src_name` | Source pod name | | `k8s.src.type` / `k8s_src_type` | Source workload type: `pod`, `replicaset`, `deployment`, `statefulset`, `daemonset`, `job`, `cronjob`, `node` | | `k8s.src.owner.name` / `k8s_src_owner_name` | Source workload owner name | | `k8s.src.owner.type` / `k8s_src_owner_type` | Source workload owner type: `replicaset`, `deployment`, `statefulset`, `daemonset`, `job`, `cronjob`, `node` | | `k8s.src.node.ip` / `k8s_src_node_ip` | Source node IP address | | `k8s.src.node.name` / `k8s_src_node_name` | Source node name | | `k8s.dst.namespace` / `k8s_dst_namespace` | Destination namespace name | | `k8s.dst.name` / `k8s_dst_name` | Destination pod name | | `k8s.dst.type` / `k8s_dst_type` | Destination workload type: `pod`, `replicaset`, `deployment`, `statefulset`, `daemonset`, `job`, `cronjob`, `node` | | `k8s.dst.owner.name` / `k8s_dst_owner_name` | Destination workload owner name | | `k8s.dst.owner.type` / `k8s_dst_owner_type` | Destination workload owner type: `replicaset`, `deployment`, `statefulset`, `daemonset`, `job`, `cronjob`, `node` | | `k8s.dst.node.ip` / `k8s_dst_node_ip` | Destination node IP address | | `k8s.dst.node.name` / `k8s_dst_node_name` | Destination node name | | `k8s.cluster.name` / `k8s_cluster_name` | Name of the Kubernetes cluster. OBI can auto-detect it on Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and Amazon Web Services. For other providers, set the `OTEL_EBPF_KUBE_CLUSTER_NAME` property | ## Metric reduction For high-cardinality reductions, the network metrics are pre-aggregated at the process level to reduce the number of metrics sent to the metrics backend. By default, all metrics are aggregated by the following attributes: - `direction` - `transport` - `src.address` - `dst.address` - `src.port` - `dst.port` You can specify which attributes are allowed in the OBI configuration, to aggregate the metric by them. For example, to aggregate network metrics by source and destination Kubernetes owner (instead of the default individual pod names), you can use the following configuration: ```yaml network: allowed_attributes: - k8s.src.owner.name - k8s.dst.owner.name - k8s.src.owner.type - k8s.dst.owner.type ``` Then, the equivalent Prometheus metric would be: ```text obi_network_flow_bytes: k8s_src_owner_name="frontend" k8s_src_owner_type="deployment" k8s_dst_owner_name="backend" k8s_dst_owner_type="deployment" ``` The previous example would aggregate the `obi.network.flow.bytes` value by source and destination Kubernetes owner name and type, instead of individual pod names. ## CIDR-based metrics You can configure OBI to also break down metrics by CIDR ranges. This is useful for tracking traffic to specific network ranges, such as cloud provider IP ranges, or internal/external traffic. The `cidrs` YAML subsection in `network` (or the `OTEL_EBPF_NETWORK_CIDRS` environment variable) accepts a list of CIDR ranges, and the corresponding name. For example: ```yaml network: cidrs: - cidr: 10.0.0.0/8 name: 'cluster-internal' - cidr: 192.168.0.0/16 name: 'private' - cidr: 172.16.0.0/12 name: 'container-internal' ``` Then, the equivalent Prometheus metric would be: ```text obi_network_flow_bytes: src_cidr="cluster-internal" dst_cidr="private" ``` --- Section pages: - [Measure traffic between Cloud availability zones](/docs/zero-code/obi/network/inter-az/): How to measure the network traffic between different Cloud availability zones - [OBI network metrics quickstart](/docs/zero-code/obi/network/quickstart/): A quickstart guide to produce Network Metrics from OpenTelemetry eBPF Instrumentation - [OBI Network Metrics configuration options](/docs/zero-code/obi/network/config/): Learn about the configuration options available for OBI network metrics